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AUSTIN, Texas – Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report. The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients.
Read the rest of this article here.
9 patients made nearly 2,700 ER visits in Texas (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_re_us/frequent_er_patients - broken link)
So who said we don't already have socialized medicine in this country? What can we do to stop this kind of abuse?
funny, it didn't say they had medicare or medicaid. So how did they cost the taxpayers anything?
Most people's insurance has a higher co-pay for ER visits. It hasn't seemed to work that way here. Some studies have shown that ER use is not related to insurance status, e.g. the insured are as likely to use the ER (inappropriately) as the uninsured.
I still think most mental patients don't need to be locked up. It had to be terrible to be locked up in some mental institution just because you were eccentric or someone wanted you gone for whatever reason.
If someone is criminally insane, they have to be locked up, but there has to be something else besides an institution and homelessness for those who aren't criminally insane.
I think if it were me, I'd prefer to be homeless and free to being locked up.
This movie pretty much tackles it. Try to tell who's crazy in this movie.
AUSTIN, Texas – Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report. The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients.
Read the rest of this article here.
9 patients made nearly 2,700 ER visits in Texas (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_re_us/frequent_er_patients - broken link)
So who said we don't already have socialized medicine in this country? What can we do to stop this kind of abuse?
Perhaps if those 9 people had access to preventative care and a primary physician through coverage they wouldn't have had to visit the ER instead of going to their DR. .. that's just one of the many things I could think of.
Just want to clear something up, since Medicare & Medicaid have been mentioned in the same sentence. Medicare is an entitlement that someone who is qualified receives at age 65. Also, people who are approved for Social Security Disability Insurance receive Medicare. So someone who is disabled and getting SSI will get the same benefits as someone who is 65+. Medicare eligibility is not based on income. Medicaid is health coverage for needy individuals and families and is both federally and state funded. Medicare is not state funded. The funds come from our payroll taxes.
Some people who live on a very limited income and are on Medicare also get Medicaid. What I mean is that, if you are on Medicare there are many deductibles, copays and $96.50 is deducted from your Soc Sec check every month for Part B which covers doctors & outpatient services. So let's say someone is very poor and on Medicaid. When that person turns 65 and goes on Medicare, Medicaid will be the supplemental insurance that covers the expenses not covered by Medicare. The recipients of both programs are referred to as "Dual Eligibles." Everyone else either pays the deductibles & copays and other charges not covered by Medicare, buys a supplement which averages $2,000 a year, or joins an HMO or PPO plan designed by a private insurer and approved by CMS.
I had to summarize, so I skipped a lot, but I just wanted to point out that, just because someone is on Medicare, it doesn't mean they get free health care. In fact, without additional coverage you could go broke quickly if afflicted with a serious illness. Then there's long-term care which bankrupts many people who end up rotting in a state-run assisted living facility, but that's another subject. They should call it "Assisted Dying."
The abuse I mentioned in my original comment is with the system. Why are taxpayers being charged $3 million for 9 patients? How can we blame the patients if they're mentally disabled? I never meant to insinuate that.
Mike to be fair, that trend started in the 70's based on abuses happening to patients in the hospitals. The institutionlization effect, ACLU issues, a few things going on all at once. Reagan used it to abandon them completely, but this trend started on carters watch. Mental health soft sciences is still very crude, and psychiatry isn't really offering a whole lot of guarantees.
That's absolutely right. It began under Jimmy Carter and continued under Ronald Reagan. Carter hated taking the action, but he was the first President to attempt an honest analysis of the debt since WWII, and one of the immediate findings was that the taxpayer couldn't afford the hospitals for the chronically ill, and that had actually been the case for decades. There were supposed to be supplemental funding programs for private sector hospitals who would assume the care of those patients, but those programs never even came to a vote.
That's absolutely right. It began under Jimmy Carter and continued under Ronald Reagan. Carter hated taking the action, but he was the first President to attempt an honest analysis of the debt since WWII, and one of the immediate findings was that the taxpayer couldn't afford the hospitals for the chronically ill, and that had actually been the case for decades. There were supposed to be supplemental funding programs for private sector hospitals who would assume the care of those patients, but those programs never even came to a vote.
It started under Kennedy, in 1963. Please see my previous post about this, with a link to the Community Mental Health Act of 1963.
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